Fc Liverpool
Film Studies: East is East
Background Information
Plot summary
Salford, Manchester in the 1970s: The Khan family owns a little fish and chip shop and lives a rather modest life. Pakistani-born George Khan and his British wife Ella have seven children, who seem to struggle constantly with their bicultural heritage. George is trying to raise his children as good Muslims, whereas Ella is trying to achieve a compromise between British and Pakistani culture. She is a loving mother but is torn between her patriarchal husband’s conservative standards and her children’s wish to enjoy a “normal” British childhood.
When the Khans’ oldest son Nazir flees from his arranged marriage ceremony, George feels so ashamed in front of his Muslim community that he disowns his son. From that moment on the family has to pretend that Nazir is dead ( and the remaining children face an even stricter father. On the one hand they try to be loyal to him and respect his Pakistani heritage, although neither of them has ever been to Pakistan. On the other hand they become very inventive when it comes to breaking their father’s rules.
Ella and her friend Annie always cover up for the Khan children when they secretly rebel against George. They participate in a Christian procession, skip Koran school at the mosque and slip away at night to go dancing and enjoy British pop culture. The more George forces his culture on his children, the more they seem to grow estranged from it.
When the increasingly adamant head of the Khan family arranges a double marriage for his sons Abdul and Tariq without even consulting his wife or children, the conflict finally escalates. Abdul is willing to agree to the marriage ( to an incredibly ugly stranger ( just to keep the peace. Tariq instead declares war on his father. After a fight involving the whole family, the Khan children run away to see their disowned brother Nazir. Only then do they find out that their oldest brother is gay: This clashes with his...
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